Excerpts from the press conference today between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, worth watching or reading in its entirety:
On recognition as the pivot of peace:
There has to be not merely a partner on the other side, there has to be a courageous partner, because I think we’ve shown a certain amount of fortitude and leadership and that’s what’s required from the Palestinian side. They have to say unequivocally ‘it’s over. We are going to make a real peace. It’ll be a final peace. It will be a peace that will end all claims to further conflict. It’ll be a peace that will resolve the Palestinian refugee issue once and for all and just as Jews can come to Israel, Palestinians can come to the Palestinian state.’
But not in Israel, because there has to be a Jewish state and if we’re asked to recognize a Palestinian state as the nation state of the Palestinian people, it is absolutely essential that the Palestinian leadership says to the Palestinian people ‘you will have to accept Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.’
Recognition is the pivot of peace. The absence of such clear and forthright expressions by the Palestinian leadership of such recognition has been what has been holding peace up and this is what the people of Israel and I think all fair minded people in the world expect.
On Jerusalem as a “settlement”:
I have made it clear in my conversation with President Obama in Washington and since that Jerusalem is the sovereign capital of Israel. We accept no limitations on our sovereignty. This is very clear. To put a fine point on it, I say Jerusalem is not a settlement. The settlement issue is outstanding and has to be one of the issues resolved in the negotiations, alongside Palestinian recognition of the Jewish state and effective demilitarization arrangements for any future peace agreement. But our position is that Jerusalem is the united capital of the Jewish people. It has only been around for 3,000 years. We recognize that there are obviously Arab residents in Jerusalem, and they enjoy all the equal rights and all the equal benefits of the Jewish residents. We do not draw a difference.